


footprints in the snow

by quantumoddity



Category: Nightrunner Series - Lynn Flewelling
Genre: Domestic Fluff, Established Relationship, Family Fluff, Fatherhood, M/M, Snow Day, Tooth-Rotting Fluff, Winter
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-18
Updated: 2020-10-18
Packaged: 2021-03-09 01:15:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,308
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27086161
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/quantumoddity/pseuds/quantumoddity
Summary: Alec and Seregil are travelling so their daughter gets to see snow for the very first time and leaves her papa with a lot of memories.
Relationships: Alec í Amasa/Seregil í Korit
Comments: 1
Kudos: 6





	footprints in the snow

Alec didn’t remember the first time he’d seen snow. It had always been part of his home as he grew, as much a part of the northern forests as the trees and the bitter wind and the wolf tracks in the brittle, cold shocked ground. Snow had been a source of clean water when you were far from a stream, a friend who would muffle your footfalls so you could creep close enough to take down the first deer you’d seen in weeks, an enemy who would wake you in the morning with blistered lips and stiff fingers if your shelter wasn’t good enough. He could never remember it being something unfamiliar, something strange and otherworldly. It had always been a part of his life, a part of him with his fair skin and pale hair. 

Which was why Alec was so delighted to see it through his daughter’s eyes for the very first time. 

The first few years of  Adzriel ä Alec Ireya Rhíminee’s life had been spent in Bôkthersa and Skala where winter was all about grey rather than white, cold slate days and endless skies of thick cloud and sleet. Bôkthersa was too warm a climate for real snow and Rhíminee had the cloying atmosphere of a city, of crowded bodies and close buildings, the trapped heat and proximity to the sea meaning there was never anything more than the slightest sparkling of frost on the really chill days. She’d never known snow the way her papa did. 

But they were travelling this winter, the fourth of her life, and Alec had been filling her head with visions of white flakes dancing in the air and dragon breath appearing before her every time she exhaled, of snowball fights and snow people and skating on frozen lakes. So it had been no surprise when, that morning, he’d been woken by her cry of delight and drawn to the window of the inn room they’d been staying in for the night to see the world turned crisp and white and perfect. 

Of course then nothing would do but to bundle her as much as she’d let him in her excitement and set out into it, no matter the early hour. Alec had nudged the snoring pile of blankets that was his husband and asked if he wanted to come but had, to no one’s surprise, received a growl of dissent. He certainly didn’t share his talímenios’ love of winter or their little girl’s love of getting up early. 

It seemed like every other living soul shared his views. As they walked out across the fields and into the thin woods that surrounded the main road they’d been travelling, it felt like they were the only two people in the whole world. It had been much the same way when Alec was a child, it had been so easy to forget that it wasn’t just him and his father, the only two humans in the vast expanse of the snowy wilderness, the only sounds the calls of those birds brave enough to be out in the cold and crunch of their footfalls. 

And now it was him and Adzriel. Alec felt a fond kind of sadness weigh his heart down in his chest a little. 

“Papa! Papa, it’s all white!” Adzri cried in amazement, trying to run ahead but the snow and her uncertain little toddler legs made it difficult. 

Alec chuckled and took her head so she’d be a little steadier, “Why don’t you try and touch some, love?”

She gasped and bent over to try and grab a handful of a nearby drift. Even with the mittens he’d insisted she wear, as soon as her fingers brushed the snow she gave an indignant shout and jumped back. 

“Papa, it  _ bit  _ me!” 

Alec grinned, the expression on her little face an absolute perfect replica of one he’d seen on Seregil’s many times, “It’s the cold, sweet girl, that’s all. It’ll go away after a little while.” 

She frowned down at the snow, a little warier now, but she was as stubborn as both her fathers. Again, she bent and seized a handful, eyes widening in awe as she crunched it between her clumsy, mittened fingers. 

“Pretty…” she murmured, letting it fall back to the ground, watching how it caught on the air. 

“Very pretty,” Alec agreed, squatting down beside her, “See, you can press it into snowballs or make snow shapes or build it up into people…” 

Adzri giggled, grabbing more and throwing it up into the air, laughing as it fluttered back down around them and caught in Alec’s hair. 

“Or you can just do that,” he chuckled, flicking some from his braid, “Come on, let’s walk a little further. It’ll be deeper the more we go into the woods.”

They continued on, so Alec could show his daughter how beautiful a snow encrusted leaf or pine cone could be, how it turned everything to sugared candies or how you could yell as loud as you could and the sound would carry no further than the tip of your nose. 

After they’d been walking awhile, Alec realised her little hand was no longer held in his own. A hot rush of panic he wished he weren’t so familiar with pierced his stomach. She was always doing this, she’d inherited their talents for disappearing silently and wandering off. More than a few times he and Seregil had lost sight of her in some busy market or small town, ran themselves frantic back and forth, only to find their daughter sat happily enjoying the sunshine or admiring some shiny rock or forgotten penny that had caught her attention. More than once Seregil had been heard to curse the day she learned to walk on her own two feet. 

Fortunately, he only had to turn around to find her. She was waddling in the snow just a few feet behind him, trying to place her feet in the snowy boot prints he’d left behind him. Her dark hair, so like Seregil’s, had come loose from under the hat Kari had knitted for her when she’d heard they were travelling north, her cheeks were an adorable apple red with the cold and her bright blue eyes, twins of his own, were full of delight. Her little tongue poked out in concentration as she did her best to walk in her papa’s footprints. 

Alec’s panic dissipated, leaving his heart warm and full of love for his little girl. It had been such a wrench to the lives they’d known, the day she’d become theirs, but now Alec couldn’t imagine how he’d ever managed without her. 

Time soon became irrelevant as they played in the snow, neither Alec or Adzriel noticed the sun coming up through the trees. They built themselves a snow family, one taller snowman to be Alec, one an inch shorter to be Seregil and then a little snowgirl, all of them with acorns for eyes and smiles fashioned from twigs. Alec did his best to make a snow castle for Adzriel to rein from which absolutely delighted her. They lay in the snow and waved their arms and legs to leave imprints behind, leaving them laughing and looking a lot like their snow counterparts with how much clung to their coats. 

It was when they were trying to catch the gentle flakes of the latest flurry on their tongue that Alec saw movement out of the corner of his eye, through the trees. For a moment his hunter’s instincts prickled but then he caught a wink of the morning light catching on an earring and he grinned. 

“You know, Adzri,” he hummed as if it had just occurred to him, “We really should be careful out here so early, with all this snow around…”

Her big blue eyes widened, “Why, papa?”

“Sometimes…” he leaned in close and stage whispered, making sure his voice carried while trying to sound conspiratorial, “In the dead of winter...in cold, lonely woods like these...the  _ snow beasts  _ come out to play.”

Almost instantly she was absorbed in the game, squeaking and closing in tight to him, “Snow beasts!” 

“That’s right!” Alec declared, clutching her tight and looking theatrically from side to side, “Hideous creatures, these snow beasts, absolutely horrific. The sight of their faces is enough to stop a man’s heart!”

There was a poorly concealed snort of laughter from behind a nearby tree and the sound of footsteps from somewhere behind them. 

“What do we do, papa?” Adzri was caught between terror and delight, the place children occupied so excitedly. 

“Well, love, the only way to beat these vile monsters is at their own game. With a few well placed snowballs. Quick, we need ammunition, they’re already closing in!”

She made a sound that was half a scream and half a laugh, hurriedly scooping up snow. With Alec’s help, they soon had a small pile of serviceable snowballs. He had no doubt their ‘snow beast’ had used his time similarly. 

“You throw the first, you’re a better shot than me,” Alec insisted, putting one in her hand and helping her square up. 

He was saying it to make her puff up with pride but, in all honesty, for her last name day they’d given her a toy bow and arrow set fit for her tiny hand and he could already tell she’d be as good a shot as him some day. Perhaps even better. He’d have been smug but she seemed equally talented with her wooden sword. It seemed both of them had a protegee as well as a daughter. 

“Don’t loose until you see it’s horrible face!” he warned, “Hold steady, that’s it...wait...wait…”

Sensing his cue, Seregil pounced from behind the tree, kicking up a flurry he could emerge from, gloved hands curled into claws, roaring gutturally. Adzriel was used to her daddy’s theatrics, however, and promptly hurled the snowball, catching him right on the nose. 

Alec burst out laughing, hard enough that he lost his balance and pitched forward onto his knees, while Seregil spat out snow and wrinkled his nose. 

“Good shot, sweetling,” he spluttered, “Unfortunately.” 

“Daddy!” Adzriel frowned, putting her hands on her hips like she was scolding him, “We’re supposed to be hunting snow beasts!”

“Apologies,” Seregil laughed ruefully, dropping into a hunched, monstrous crouch.

He chased her around the clearing and let her pitch snowballs at him, eventually sweeping her up in his arms and spinning her around until she was in fits of giggles, tumbling in the snow with her. Alec sat up, not caring that snow was melting and soaking his knees through, watching his husband and their daughter play and unable to keep the smile from his face. 

He remembered a time when Seregil had been absolutely terrified at the mere idea of being a father. He remembered difficult nights, arguments, empty space in the bed between them. And then the eventual breaking of the dam, the tears that came up like blood from a wound that had finally been lanced. Alec had learned a lot about his talímenios’ father then, things that made his shoulders tense and his hands ball into fists as he saw years worth of scars on show. 

He remembered Seregil sobbing into his shoulder  _ if she grows up and fears me the way I feared him, I don’t know how I could bear it. _

But Seregil wasn’t Korit. He’d proved that so many times over and seeing him now, like this, with so much love and pride in his eyes as he played with their daughter, so at ease with her, happier than Alec could ever remember him being, he knew those fears his husband had shared with him had been put to rest. 

He wiped a few tears from his eyes before they could fall, laughing as Seregil enacted a dramatic death while Adzriel sat on his chest and clapped her hands in triumph. 

“Well done, brave hunter,” he swept her into his arms and kissed her frozen cheeks, “I don’t think I’ve ever heard of anyone brave enough to take down a snow beast.”

“Me!” Adzri crowed, “I did!”

Seregil stood, shaking snow off his travelling coat, “You certainly did, consider me very much defeated.”

“Look at you,” Alec beamed at him, smiling softly, “Up before noon and out in the cold…”

Seregil gave him a lopsided grin and came up to wind his arm around his waist, “Well, I couldn’t let the two of you have all the fun, talí.”

Alec chuckled and kissed him, hoping that and the bond they shared would say everything he wanted to but couldn’t put into words. From the way Seregil cupped his cheek and sighed under his lips, it seemed like they did. 

“Eeeeew,” Adzri groaned, wriggling to bring their attention back to her. 

Alec laughed and Seregil cooed, “Feeling left out, my little winter warrior?” He pulled her close and peppered kisses all over her face until she was giggling and squealing and begging for mercy.

“Come on now, I think we could all use a hot breakfast,” Alec slid an arm through Seregil’s, “We’ve got travelling to do today. Plenty of time to play when we’re on the road.” 

“Good idea, talí,” Sergeil kissed his cheek and let Adzriel wriggle down to toddle back with one hand in her papa’s and the other in her daddy’s. 

On the way Seregil invented tales of snow beasts and their winter ways, now fixed on the idea. It would be easy to be as transfixed as their daughter, he really did know how to weave a story together. But Alec couldn’t help glancing back as he walked, letting him carry on. 

And the sight of their footprints, side by side in the snow, made him smile. 

**Author's Note:**

> I can't help it, I have some favourites and then I give them a baby, it's how I operate. Please leave a comment if you like this and if you want more of this little dad au I have going here, you can ask over on my Tumblr, @mollymauk-teafleak


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